The current and future market for veterinarians and veterinary medical services in the United States.

As the profession of veterinary medicine sits at the brink of the next century and millennium, we are truly at a crossroads in our professional history. Significant societal problems, new driving forces, our economic viability, and technologic challenges have combined to create unprecedented opportunities and potential difficulties. Without question, our collective professional future is in flux and the fundamental ways of how we work, what we work on, when we work, why we work, and with whom we work, are all being called into question. The AVMA, AAHA, and AAVMC commissioned KPMG LLP in April 1998 to analyze and prepare a comprehensive study of the profession as we approach this watershed point in our history. Sensing the profound importance of this special time, the 3 organizations wanted to ensure that the veterinary profession remains productive, responsive and economically successful. Just as important, the groups also understand that our future success will be judged by our responsiveness to the changing needs and expectations of society and our ability to adapt and acquire new knowledge and skills in meeting these diverse needs. The KPMG study is a comprehensive, far-reaching, and seminal work that contains in-depth analyses and special insights of veterinary medicine as we approach the next century. Issues of supply, demand, income, gender, market forces and characteristics of successful practices and public and private practitioners were expertly examined and clarified. The study suggests that there is a group of serious problems that need our special and sustained attention. These problems are frequently manifested by economic pressures in some segments of the profession. At the same time, opportunities abound but may not be realized unless we are able to reconcile the need to adapt and change our current inefficient structures, inappropriate business practices and attitudes, and habitual ways of delivering services that may be incompatible with our future success. Finally, the study suggests that our traditional approaches and past requisite skills and levels of knowledge may not be commensurate with the rapid changes and new demands of food-animal industries and the shifting requirements needed for the corporate and public opportunities of the future, including public health, biomedical research, and the global food system. The study disclosed compelling evidence for change and the need for a proactive, comprehensive plan that could be implemented to both counter the serious problems found and exploit a group of remarkable opportunities. To achieve the AVMA/ AAHA/AAVMC’s goal of ensuring a productive, successful, responsive and economically viable profession, the 3 organizations also interpreted the report as a “call to action.” The groups are establishing plans for a national dialogue on the critical issues of the report. A goal of the 3 associations is to develop and implement concrete and effective strategies to ensure our future relevance, direction, responsiveness, capacity, and economic health that will lead us to a renaissance for the profession and those we serve as we begin the next century.